Monday, May 23, 2011

Malick wins the Palme d'Or

Cannes film festival honours the director for his fifth film, The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn

Word was the Cannes film festival had been itching to give their top honour to Terrence Malick for 40 years. But so patchy is the director's output that they hadn't yet been given the chance. They made up for it on Sunday night, bestowing the director with the Palme d'Or for his fifth film. The Tree of Life stars Brad Pitt as a domineering father in late 50s Texas, and Sean Penn as his son in the present day, struggling to cope with his brother's premature death. It also features CGI dinosaurs, an extended sequence set in space at the beginning of the world, and one of the most upbeat depictions of the afterlife seen on screen.

Yet one of the key attractions of Malick for a festival that that adores eccentric auteurs (he eschews all press commitments) meant that the director did not, in fact, turn up to receive his award ? though he apparently snook into its premiere unnoticed. Rather, his producer, Bill Pohlad, was there in his stead, noting that Malick remained "infamously and notoriously shy and quite humble". The announcement was met with rousing applause in the Palais auditorium, sprinkled with a few boos. For while many adored his film, others damned it as one of the great arthouse turkeys of all time.

Jury president Robert De Niro explained after the ceremony that it had been The Tree of Life's grand scale and ambition that finally clinched it. "It seemed to have the size, the importance, the tension to fit the prize." But there was the suggestion that it wasn't a wholly unanimous decision. "Few films are 100%," said De Niro. "But most of us thought it was great."

The auteur that's matched Malick for headlines this year, Lars von Trier, banned by the festival's board of directors after mounting a jocular defence of Adolf Hitler in an official press conference, was given a consolation prize of sorts when Kirsten Dunst picked up the award for best actress for her part in Melancholia. "What a week it's been," laughed Dunst, who plays a manic depressive whose wedding day coincides with the beginning of the end of the world, in her speech. "I want to thanks Lars. He's so great."

It was another popular choice at a closing night ceremony indulgently received by the Cannes crowd. The tone was set early on when De Niro spoke in halting French to introduce his jury colleagues, including Uma Thurman and Jude Law, prompting much laughter and applause.

His jury presented the best actor gong to Jean Durjardin, whose leading role in black and white silent film The Artist, as a star struggling with the advent of the talkies, won him a standing ovation at the closing night ceremony as well as the premiere. Evidently relishing the chance to speak, Durjardin gave an emotional address, in which he thanked his wife lavishly, blowing kisses from the stage.

Cannes favourites the Dardennes brothers, two time recipients of the Palme d'Or, shared the Grand Prix for Le Gamin au Velo, a neo-realist tale of bad parenting and bike-riding in Belgium. The other winner, an outside bet for the bigger award, was Nuri Bilge Ceylan. In his speech, however, Ceylan expressed surprise his epic Turkish crime thriller, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, had been so successful. "I really didn't expect this," he said. "I thought it would be too tiring for you."

Public taste again tallied with the jury's choices in the screenwriter award, which went to Joseph Cedar, the writer (and director) of a multilayered Israeli drama called Footnote. But there was a shock with the Jury prize, which went to Polisse, one of the four films in competition directed by a woman. Ma�wenn Le Besco struggled to breathe with shock during her speech ? and she wasn't the only one, for her freewheeling drama set in the Juvenile Protection Division of the Parisien police force was one this year's most panned (Peter Bradshaw labelled it "a strong contender for the most awful film of the competition").

But there was nothing for Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin, one of the few British films at this year's festival, and whose star, Tilda Swinton, was presumably squeezed out of the acting category by Dunst. Eternal Cannes bridesmaid Pedro Almod�var, too, went home empty handed for The Skin I Live In, as did Paulo Sorrentino's goth-odyssey This Must Be The Place, which had been tipped to win an acting award for Sean Penn as a washed up rocker.

The 64th festival has been widely reckoned to be a vintage year. Business has picked up after a spell in the doldrums. The films have been strong, with no high-profile disasters. And Von Trier controversy has much swelled the column inches the festival commanded.

Harvey Weinstein, the mogul who bought the US distribution rights to The Artist in the year's first big purchase, told the Guardian: "I think this is the best festival in 25 years. This was an exceptional year with an exceptional jury and they made incredible choices."


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Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/may/22/terrence-malick-wins-palme-dor

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